• Holly Morris Higgins, who also lost her eye in an accident, sent some encouragement: “It will take some adjustment - mono-vision has its challenges, but life is just as sweet with one eye! Wishing you a speedy recovery!”

• Former WDIV meteorologist Chuck Gaidica also posted his get-well thoughts: “You are more than an admired competitor, you are a great colleague. Please know I and my family are praying for your recovery unceasingly.”

Chief WXYZ-TV Meteorologist Dave Rexroth received support from across the country after viewers, co-workers and friends learned he lost an eye in a July 4 fireworks accident.

The Farmington Hills resident was on vacation with his family in Iowa when the accident occurred. He is hospitalized in Iowa City and will undergo surgery on Wednesday.

The married father of three lost vision in his left eye, the station reported. He will receive a prosthetic eye, and expects to return to the air in September.

On an early Monday Channel 7 report, Ed Fernandez, vice president and general manager of WXYZ, said Rexroth and his family has the station’s “full support during this difficult time.”

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Many sent well wishes and love across social media. Nearly 2,000 comments peppered a post on Rexroth’s Facebook page about the injury by midday Monday, while more than 2,000 were posted on the station’s page.

Kathy MacKenzie Ashcraft, whose grandson, Casey, was on baseball and basketball teams coached by Rexroth, said, “You’ve done so much good in this community, especially as a coach to our young boys ... (I) am praying for you and hope you get well soon.”

Rexroth’s bio page on the WXYZ website says one of his greatest thrills is coaching his boys’ baseball and basketball teams.

Sandi Cook Poirier wrote that she was saddened by the accident.

“My 18-year-old was using fireworks this weekend ... and it’s just always a scary thing,” Poirier said. “Interested in hearing exactly what happened.”

Doctor on ocular surgery

Beaumont Ophthalmologist Barbara Kuczynski, who practices in Clawson, said the planned surgery tells her that Rexroth’s eyeball was punctured somehow.

“Depending on the extent of the injury, what happened or where it is, (doctors) usually run a CAT scan and check for foreign bodies,” she said, “but the main thing to do is close up the rupture or the area that’s open.”

Kuczynski, who specializes in surgeries closing the globe of the eye, said if a patient can’t perceive light within two days of an accident, their vision in that eye is usually lost.

After that, doctors have a week to remove the eye, due to an auto immune condition that can kick in when there’s trauma to one eye and not the other, said Kuczynski.

“Because (an) eye gets involved in some kind of penetrating injury, (the body) creates an immune response to that, which could affect the good eye as well,” she explained, “so (doctors) have to take out the eye and get rid of any immune response so it can’t reach the other eye.”

After a prosthetic eye is put in, recovery takes two to three months. Each part of the process is handled by a separate team of specialists, she said — artists have to get the color and tone of the prosthetic just right, while another team focuses on closing the rupture of the original injury.